Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Milwaukee). This thread is read-only.
I feel like my prayers have been answered. We used the 8″ corded version for years and, while I love the 5⅜” fuel model, I’ve broke 4 in the last two years. They’ve been covered under warranty but I was starting to come to the conclusion the the 5⅜” wasn’t heavy duty enough for what I was using it for and needed a different answer. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Got my new saw today and the thing is beefy. The motor is bigger than the corded model and it makes the 5⅜” fuel model look like a tinker toy.
How did you break them?
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paulengr wrote:
17 hours ago, paulengr said:How did you break them?
I keep taking out the gears. Started with a new saw in fall of 2017 broke it, sent it in and they repaired it with armature and gear housing. Stripped gears again and they sent me a new saw. Broke 2nd new saw and sent it in to warranty to have them replace armature and gear housing. Broke repaired saw and I’m now on a 3rd new saw.
I see in the online parts manual they have updated the gear housing, but I haven’t even used the newest saw because about the time I got it they released the new 8″ so I’ve just been using my brushed 5⅜” saw. I’m still trying to decide if I should keep the fuel 5⅜” or sell it. I really do like it because it has a lot of power in a small package and never seemed underpowered for anything I was cutting. But if its only going to last me 6 months its just a matter of time before I run out of warranty. I would also say that we’ve stripped gears in a couple 8″ corded saws over the last 15 years so its not like it doesn’t happen but every 6 months is a little too excessive.
What type of work puts that much shock load on the gearboxes? Or do you do that much cutting to where it wears them out?
I personally think its a design flaw and the gears are too weak. We use the saws daily but no where close to using them enough to wear them out in under 6 months. Doing the same work we were getting over 5 years out of the corded 8″ model. It was always a specific abusing task that broke the corded model, like one broke the day after a newer guy was cutting some heavy I-beams. That wasn’t the case with the fuel 5⅜”, I mainly cut 12ga sheet steel with it and I was never abusing it when it broke.